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| 7737135810 | chiasmus | the repetition of ideas in inverted order; the repetition of grammatical structures in inverted order. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." | 0 | |
| 7737135811 | antithesis | juxtoposition of contrasting words or ideas (often, but not always, in parallel structure) "Patience is bitter, but it has a sweet fruit." "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind." --Neil Armstrong "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" --Charles Dickens | 1 | |
| 7737135812 | epistrophe | ending a series of lines, phrases, clauses or sentences with the same word or words. "Where now? Who now? When now?" --Samuel Beckett "And that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." --Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" | 2 | |
| 7737135813 | anaphora | Repetition of the same word to groups of words at the beginnings of successive phrases. ¨We shall not flag or fail. We shall go to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend out island... we shall never surrender.¨ | 3 | |
| 7737135815 | synecdoche | the substitution of a part for a whole; calling something by just one of its component parts "gray beard" for an old man "boots" for soldiers ("boots on the ground") "Coke" for any carbonated soft drink (Southern synecdoche!) | 4 | |
| 7737135816 | metonymy | the substitution of some attribute or suggestive word for what is actually meant. The word we use to describe another thing is closely linked to that particular thing, but is not necessarily a part of it (so it's NOT synecdoche). "Let me give you a hand" (hand means help) "The pen is mightier than the sword" (written words over violent force) "crown" as a substitute for a king or queen ("British citizens are under the authority of the crown") | 5 | |
| 7737190179 | Asyndeton | Deliberate exclusion of conjunctions between a series of words, phrases, or clauses. ¨I came, I saw, I conquered.¨ ¨Dogs, distinguishable in mire. Horses, scarcely better--splashed to their very blinkers. Foot passengers, jostling one another´s umbrellas, in a general infection of ill temper...¨ ¨..that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet an hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.¨ | 6 | |
| 7737249350 | Polysyndeton | Deliberate use of many conjunctions (does not involve exclusion, but is grouped with its opposite, asyndeton.) ¨I sad, ´who killed him?´ and he said, ´I don´t know who killed him but hes dead all right,´ and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights or windows broke and boats all up in the town and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango Key and she was all right only she was full of water.¨ | 7 | |
| 7737332700 | Isocolon | a scheme of parallel structure that occurs when the parallel elements are similar not only in grammatical structure but also in length (number of words or even number of syllables.) ¨His purpose was to impress the ignorant, to perplex the dubious, and to confound the scrupulous.¨ ¨An envious heart makes a treacherous ear.¨ | 8 | |
| 7737365856 | Parralelism | Similarity of structure in a pair of series of related words, phrases, or clauses. ¨...for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, out fortunes, our sacred honor.¨ ¨We have seen the state of our union in the endurance of rescuers, working past exhaustion. We have seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers-- in English, Hebrew, and Arabic.¨ | 9 | |
| 7852101327 | Epanalepsis | Repetition of the same word or words at both beginning and ending of a phrase, clause, or sentence. "Nothing is worse than doing nothing." "A minimum wage that is not a livable wage can never be a minimum wage." | 10 | |
| 7852114590 | Oxymoron | the joining of two terms which are ordinary contradictory. "Jumbo Shrimp." "Cruel Kindness." | 11 | |
| 7852133874 | Allusion | A direct or indirect reference to something in which is presumable commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. Allusions can be historical, literary, religious, topical, or mythical. There are many more possibilities, and a work may simultaneously use multiple layers of allusion. "He was destined to fail." "He always flew too close to the sun." | 12 | |
| 7852156999 | Colloquial | The use of slang or in formalities in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing, colloquialisms give a work a conversational, familiar tone. | 13 | |
| 7852168247 | Euphemism | From the greek for "good speech," euphemisms are a more agreeable or less offensive substitiute for a generally unpleasant word or concept. "Passed away" instead of "died." "Earthly remains" instead of "corpse." | 14 | |
| 7852182507 | Understatement | The ironic minimizing of fact, understatement presents something as less significant than it is. The effect can frequently be humorous and emphatic. Understatement is the opposite of hyperbole. Tis but a scratch," the knight says. Moments later, when the knight loses his other arm to Arthur's sword, he tells his competitor that it's "just a flesh wound," and that he has "had worse." | 15 | |
| 8028318148 | Antanaclasis | Repetition of a word or phrase whose meaning changes in the second instance. "Your argument is sound, nothing but sound." "If we don't hang together, we'll hang separately." "If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm." | 16 | |
| 8028374926 | Personification | Investing abstractions or inanimate objects with human qualities. "The night comes crawling in on all fours." "Once again, the heart of America is heavy. The spirit of America weeps for a tragedy that denies the very meaning of our land." | 17 | |
| 8028446992 | Hyperbole | The use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect. "It rained for four years, eleven months, and two days." "We walked along a road in Cumberland and stooped, because the sky hung so low." | 18 | |
| 8028509298 | Litotes | Figure of speech and a form of understatement in which a sentiment is expresses ironically by negating it's contrary. "It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain." "For four generations we've been making medicines as if people's lives depended on them." | 19 | |
| 8028573894 | Paradox | An apparently contradictory statement that nevertheless contains a measure of truth. "And yet, it was a strangely satisfying experience for an invisible man to hear the silence of sound." "Art is a form of lying in order to tell the truth." "Whoever loses his life, shall find it." "The golden rule is that there are no golden rules." | 20 | |
| 8028632007 | Allegory | "The device of using a character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. An allegory is a work that conveys a hidden meaning—usually moral, spiritual, or political—through the use of symbolic characters and events. "Animal Farm is a political allegory." Ask teacher for another example!! | 21 | |
| 8028666115 | Analogy | A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them. An analogy can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with or pointing out it's similarity to something more familiar. "Getting politicians to agree is like herding cats." "Voting against affirmative action is like voting for slavery." | 22 | |
| 8028713983 | Extended Metaphor | A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout work. "Life is like eating a grapefruit. First, one breaks its skin; then one takes a few bites to get used to its taste, and finally one starts enjoying its flavor." "Life is a highway that takes us through green pastures, vast deserts, and rocky mountains." | 23 | |
| 8028753935 | Pun | A play on words in which a humorous effect is produced by using a word that suggests two or more meanings or by exploiting similar sounding words having different meanings. ""You can tune a guitar, but you can't tuna fish. Unless of course, you play bass." "Why can a man never starve in the Great Desert? Because he can eat the sand which is there." | 24 | |
| 8028786968 | Juxtaposition | Occurs when an author places 2 things side by side as a way of highlighting their differences. Ideas, images, characters, and action are all things that can be juxtaposed with one another. | 25 |
